NEW ZEALAND. 405 



to be erroneous,* for only a small portion of the top was covered with 

 snow. The day previous to their making land, they had been set to 

 the northward by current about twenty miles in fourteen hours. 



They next passed through Cook's Straits to Port Cooper, on the 

 north side of Banks' Peninsula, where they anchored. This harbour 

 is sheltered, except from the northerly winds, and is much frequented 

 by w T halers, who resort thither to try out the whale-blubber. The 

 beach is in consequence strewn with the bones of these monsters. On 

 going on shore, a party of three natives and their wives were found 

 in a state of wretchedness and degradation, — their only clothing being 

 an old blanket, disgustingly dirty, besmeared with oil and with a 

 reddish earth which had been rubbed from their bodies, and a coarse 

 mat of New Zealand flax ; they depended for subsistence on a small 

 potato-patch, and smoked fish ; they lived in low huts formed of 

 stakes, covered with mats, and thatched with grass in the rudest 

 manner : their condition was but little better than that of the Fuegians. 

 A fellow-passenger, who had seen the oldest man left of the tribe, 

 stated that these were the remnants of a tribe that, but a dozen years 

 before, could muster six hundred fighting men; they were all cut off, 

 about ten years since, by the noted chief Robolua, residing near Cook's 

 Straits. The old man appeared deeply affected whilst dwelling on 

 the history of his people. The cupidity of the whites in this case, as 

 in many others, had brought about, or was the cause of, this deadly 

 attack ; the particulars were as follow. 



The master of an English vessel, by the name of Stewart, (the same 

 person from whom the small southern island takes its name,) was 

 trading along the northern island, and fell in with the chief, Robolua, 

 who was then meditating an excursion to the south. Feeling con- 

 fident that if he could come upon his enemies unawares their defeat 

 was certain, he offered Stewart to load his vessel with flax, if he 

 would transport him and his warriors to the place he wished to attack. 

 The contract was readily entered into by Stewart, and the warriors 

 were taken on board, and landed on various parts of the coast, where 

 the inhabitants, taken by surprise, were butchered without mercy. 

 Not less than fifteen hundred persons were cut off at this and the 

 adjoining harbour of Port Levy, or Kickurarapa. This Stewart is 

 said to be still living on the northern island of New Zealand. 



Many specimens of shells were obtained here, and a few presents, 

 consisting of pipes and tobacco, were made to the remnant of this 

 once powerful tribe. Two of their fellow-passengers intended to land 



* I have seen other authorities, which give its height at eight thousand feet. 



